Fiction River: Fantasy Adrift

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Book: Fiction River: Fantasy Adrift Read Online Free PDF
Author: Fiction River
Tags: Fiction
didn’t go, nothing bad would happen. Magical thinking of the worst kind.
    I couldn’t imagine the world without him. I couldn’t imagine my world without him. Panic started to sting. Like fire ants had set up shop in my belly. I felt like I could boot any second. Like I could vomit gallons of poison.
    I willed the urge into submission. If I threw up, Dad would hear. He would worry. He would try to get out of bed.
    I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. Got back to work.
    The Peru search informed me that there was this thing called The Organization for the Preservation of the Amazon Rainforest & Indigenous Culture with a staff of twenty-five and that five of them had been found shot to death. The report said they’d been on an activist mission with some shamans in the rainforest. The shamans were dead too. All but one of them.
    They were presumed killed by a group of local fighters on the payroll of an unnamed group that had been conducting mining operations in the area. The article didn’t say what for. Just assumed that the shooters tried to clear out the activists—and the objections to the land deal—in one fell swoop.
    My phone chimed again. BFF Amber. ???
    I sighed. Texted back. Bad news .
    She wrote ☹ .
    I pushed the phone away. Set the computer on the floor. Kicked off my boots so hard my big toe poked a hole through the end of my sock, and curled up under the covers. Sleep swallowed me up.
    In the morning, I found Dad downstairs, drinking out of the world’s biggest mug and making a packing list. Or a bucket list. Same difference.
    I poured myself a cup of sugar and added a little coffee to it.
    “Did you see?” he asked.
    “About the shamans?”
    He nodded.
    I slid into the chair opposite him and leaned on the table. “You said you wanted to do something. What do you want to do?”
    “I want to find that missing shaman,” he said.
    “Why? I mean, if it’s because he’s missing, then I get why.”
    “It’s more than that, Leah. The shaman who’s missing? He’s the one in the picture. From the album.”
    “No way.”
    “Yes way,” he said.
    “He’s your friend and you’re worried about him.”
    “Yes.”
    He’d bought plane tickets already. He didn’t tell me how much they cost, but I looked it up online. Twelve hundred dollars and change apiece. Mortgage money? Electric bill? Grocery bill? Not anymore.
    While I packed, Dad wrote a letter to the school to let them know I would be absent for a couple of weeks. Translation, given his disease schedule: potentially forever. He said I had the rest of the day to spend with my friends.
    I objected. He insisted.
    I went to the coffee place around the corner, where the owner didn’t care that I had a sick family member because she did, too. I ordered a mocha with an extra shot and extra whipped cream. Took my tablet and did some more research about that indigenous organization.
    Its mission statement? Restoring permaculture, reforestation, hosting a traditional healing center, and keeping a living library of indigenous plants.
    The coffee shop door opened. The bell above it rang.
    Amber walked in. She ordered at the counter and then came over. She had on a white button-down shirt with a white bowtie, black pinstriped trousers, and black and white oxfords. A dandy dandy.
    “Your dad called and told me you’d be here.”
    “He would totally do that.”
    “He said y’all are leaving. Why didn’t you let me know yourself? Are you depressed about it?”
    “Of course I’m depressed.” I sipped my mocha. “You would be, too.”
    “I have news that’ll cheer you up. Well, kind of.”
    “Go on.”
    She straightened her bowtie, which wasn’t the least bit crooked. “Vince wants to hang out.”
    The plane tickets were for tomorrow afternoon. Which meant I had no time to meet Vince unless it happened today. Like right now.
    “That is so wrong,” I said. “I look awful.” Jeans. T-shirt. I mean, it was black and therefore unsurprising
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